Oct. 22, 2009

Written by

Staff and wire reports

Miranda Lambert

"Revolution"; Sony Nashville

4 stars out of 4

Miranda Lambert's "Revolution" unfolds more like a rock album than the mainstream country CD it is. In other words, it takes a few listens before you get your bearings and can start enjoying the songs.

Take "Only Prettier," which starts like a honky-tonk ditty before the band crashes in like it's playing above the brawl at a roadside bar. Or there's the cover of John Prine's "That's the Way the World Goes Around," where a noise unexpectedly appears that'll make you look around for something on fire until you realize it's a screeching, distorted guitar.

The album features booze, guns and swagger -- and when you think back to other CDs with these themes, say by Gretchen Wilson or Toby Keith, you realize how in comparison, those feel like play-acting while this feels like the real deal. It's the difference between Montgomery Gentry and Waylon Jennings. Is Lambert a legend in the making? Maybe, if she can continue to keep the Nashville Machine away from her music.

Mike Doughty

"Sad Man Happy May"; ATO Records

3.5 stars out of 4

Singer-songwriter Mike Doughty isn't exactly a household name -- you may remember him as the creative force and singer for New York alt-rockers Soul Coughing. But his half-sung, half-rapped poetic lyrics are unmistakable, and it's nice to hear him get back to that on his new album, "Sad Man Happy Man."

While 2008's "Golden Delicious" featured more full-band arrangements and some cheesy keyboard noodling, the new album finds Doughty back in a more stripped-down mode -- his percussive acoustic guitar stylings and his beat-poet style lyrics.

He opines on the American economy, but you might not notice unless you're paying close attention, as lyrics like "pleasure on credit" mix in with "pop you with a no-lead pencil, dig up the dirt with a small utensil."

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It's fun, funky and witty at the same time. And he can be funny, too, whether he's inserting nonsense, sloppy cello solos onto one of the disc's best songs, "Lorna Zauberberg," or screaming at the top of his lungs on "Lord Lord Help Me Just to Rock Rock On."

Recommended if you like: Cake; Ben Folds; Jack Johnson

-- Jason Kellner, Reno Gazette-Journal

Lyle Lovett

"Natural Forces"; Universal Nashville

3 stars out of 4

"Home is where my horse is," Lovett sings on the title track of "Natural Forces," and the tall, cool Texan proceeds to pay homage to his home state with a couple of characteristically witty originals. But it's his raggedly tender covers of ballads by other Lone Star songwriters -- Eric Taylor's "Whooping Crane," Vince Bell's "Sun and Moon and Stars," Townes Van Zandt's "Loretta" -- that give this album its dusky resonance.

-- Elysa Gardner, USA Today

Flight of the Conchords

"I Told You I Was Freaky"; Sub Pop

2 stars out of 4

New Zealand's folk comedy duo soared on its debut album, a soundtrack of smart parodies from the first season of its HBO series. On this second attempt, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie fail to match their earlier absurd brilliance, save for a clever R. Kelly spoof and a few jokey ditties. The pop cliche they did manage to nail is the sophomore slump.

-- Edna Gundersen, USA Today

Flaming Lips

"Embryonic"; Warner Bros.

3 stars out of four

Fair warning to recent Lips converts: The easy ride is over. The Oklahoma band's 12th studio release moves away from the accessible fare and commercial polish of 1999's "The Soft Bulletin," 2002's "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" and 2006's "At War With the Mystics." Instead, Wayne Coyne and his cohorts have cooked up a maddening yet irresistible sprawl of psychedelia, jazz-fusion, prog-rock and other indecipherable mutations on "Embryonic." You'll hear echoes of Pink Floyd, Miles Davis and Krakatoa.

Longtime fans will welcome the throwback to the Lips' earlier weirdness, especially since the players now have the chops and vision to pull off indulgent, psychotic jams that don't sound like druggy accidents.

Not since 1997's "Zaireeka" has the band let its freak flag fly this high. Across 18 tracks on the 72-minute double album, Flaming Lips careens between sounds that are harsh and sweet, ugly and lovely, delicate and dense, often bulldozing everything into a murky, chaotic mash-up.

It's a perverse, challenging work, one that might repel fans of the band's cheerier, more cohesive tunes. Thrill seekers will surely rejoice.